SPEAKING OF PROOFING ...

Hirsch explains public school systems have de-emphasized rote learning, the 3Rs, and literary classics in favor of more innovative and individualized studies on everything from basket weaving to brake shoes, graduating several generations of adults without a common vocabulary.

Today's young adults may lack the ability to understand and employ new ideas because they do not recognize the reference points used by authors, historians, technologists, and the media to explain those ideas.